Two team drivers turned what could have been a tragic accident into a heroic rescue last Friday when they pulled a fellow driver out of his burning truck just before it was completely consumed by flames. Eastbound traffic on I-40 was backed up because of an accident, but driver John Roberts didn’t notice that the cars in front of him had stopped. He had been driving along at almost 50mph when he hit the car in front of him, causing a chain reaction which impacted two cars and another tractor trailer.
The trailer was occupied by Dennis Murillo and Deandre Hobby, team drivers for National Progressive Inc. in Fontana, CA. When their truck was hit –twice– the first thing they did was get out and make sure everyone else was alright. They checked on a woman in a Mini Cooper that was in front of them, and had to push on the car to dislodge it from their truck. They then noticed that Roberts’ vehicle was beginning to smoke.
Roberts was stuck inside his truck, while 3 or 4 people tried to get him out before his truck caught fire. Fuel was leaking everywhere around the truck and the fire started to catch, but another driver had a crowbar which Murillo and Hobby took to try to get Roberts out.
“The fire was getting big, and fuel was everywhere,” Hobby said. “Everybody else was running. We could have got blown up. We used all the fluids in our fire extinguishers,”
Luckily, thanks to the crowbar and their determination, Hobby was able to pop Roberts’ door open and get him out of the truck in time.
Before being involved in this accident, Murillo had been accident free for 4 million miles. “We did what we hope anybody would do in our situation,” Hobby said.
After saving a fellow driver and sustaining minor injuries themselves, Hobby and Murillo went on to deliver their load to Charlotte before returning back to California.
Next Story: Trucking Company Owner Embezzles $1.9 Million
Source: Landline
I sometimes wonder about our hours of service. Many times I think we are running longer then we should. Maybe the fact that we are also not getting proper sleep or eating right also contributes to these fatigue type accidents. This was obviously a accident caused by inattentive driving.
I like when the hours of service was 5 on 5 off. You can get more rest.
I don’t understand how we can live in a world where technology is so abundant, but it doesn’t exist for this situation. All it would take is a radar sensor, an onboard computer running a calculation to determine if you are approaching an object that is stopped and a warning alarm to alert the driver. It would pay for itself almost immediately.
I would agree with Johns conclusions however I have add that if a doctor or a warehouse guy can work 24 hours why are we limited to only 14, the answer is simple even though they are far more prone to cause an accident ( being a four wheeler aside lol ) we are given restrictions due to our size. I have hea lot of drivers complain and I get their gripes but we mike our living driving and plus we are normal 5-10 times the size of others.
This reminded me of a driver who should have stopped driving but he didn’t and I have a feeling part of it was the fustration of California. I was on I-10 heading through AZ from LA when I reached the border patrol check point, we all have seen it the several mile warning to slow down, big lights in the middle of the night, you can’t miss it. Well I was instructed to scale and as I am creeping along toward the scale I hear a loud screech and look to my left to find a driver nearly slamming head long into a flatbed. Thankfully he managed to stop in time, well you would expect him to have had enough and pull off at the loves just after or for DOT or BP to have detained him but no this guy was given a pass. Well about 30 miles down the road I come up to 3 trucks with flashers and being a smart driver I slow down and look at my surroundings and fall in line. Once I stop the other drivers inform me that a truck had rolled blocking the highway.
As I sit there ( 6 much more stronger built drivers are helping the driver ) I was these other drivers help him and after 15-20 minutes we have a line of maybe 10-15 trucks with flashers and on the shoulder and slow lane, its quite obvious to stop. Well a car comes flying past us at 75 and slams on her brakes at my truck and still nearly smashed herself aganist his trailer. Thankfully she only taps the trailer but needless to say when I went to pass around the side once we were cleared it was that same truck that nearly slammed into the flatbed.
He passed the bp/scale and a truckstop and nearly killed another woman. Granted it was her fault for not slowing down when she started passing the long line of trucks. That goes to show that many people should not drive past their limits. We are all different but come on for us the risk is there in a greater and even people just on vacation push themselves to far. Common sense is nearly dieing and with my generation I have even great fears of what is to come. Just please use what common sense you have and seriously forget the delivery time if your tired take a nap. I have three children and heaven help any driver who harms one of them.
Again please just use your brain!
About the previous comment: Where in this article do you see anything about fatigue, lack of sleep or eating properly, or anything else for that matter?
Just because the driver says he didn’t notice the traffic had stopped doesn’t mean he was tired or inattentive. There are a lot of things, required and not required for the proper operation of a truck, that can momentarily cause a driver to take his eyes off the road ahead.
I am not trying to stand up for the driver but let’s get the facts before we start making conclusions here.
It is people, and several other organizations, jumping to conclusions without the facts that have brought about so many unnecessary and downright stupid regulations of drivers in the trucking industry.
It does exist. It just needs to be implemented on the vehicles.
That is the greatest idea ever. You should do it yourself. Basically a radar mounted up front in the bumber region with a siren in the cab. If your going 60 it should go off for anything going 40 mph or less. Those who saved him are heros!!
Another thing that hasn’t been brought up is Owners buy a new Pete or KW with a 600 horse motor that will run 90 MPH and give the driver 10 cents a mile. This one reason you got drivers driveing to fast and to long. They have to go fast to make any money. When they get into a accident … its a bad one. I dought if ever that will stop…
Im not so sure those companies exist too much anymore George and if they do they wont be around long. My company does furnish us with beautiful equipment, 600 cummins, studio sleeper, etc but as a team we make .56 per mole and work 4-4 1/2days a week. So dont contribute custom trucks with low pay and needing to drive fast. Our trucks are not cut back and i know my wife and i do not drive that fast. In fact, our company has an excellent csa score for a 72 truck fleet so that shows a real professional wont act like an idiot hurtling 40 tons down the road at 90 mph. Those days are gone. As for the cause of the crash, i did not see anything in the article about fatigue, speed, distractions or anything else that would make anyone come to that conclusion. With a 4 million mile safe record i would be willing to say it was a wrong place at the wrong time scenario. The driver is probably feeling pretty bad about the accident anyways so dont immediatly condemn the guy for it. Maybe he topped a hill and boom, there was a mess and it was too late. I have over 3 million miles with no accidents and have had some close calls but manuvered my way out of an accident. It happens to everone out here at one time and anyone that says different is a damn liar. So dont cast blame until you have the facts. Truck drivers are like old ladies in a sewing circle. When a story starts it will be totally different when it gets back around the circle through assumption and blatent b.s. So without facts please do conclude it was contributed from anything other than human error. Good day folks
There are systems in place now that alert drivers that are getting to close. Companies have to buy and install this stuff to have it in place.
Where on I- 40????
You are right about wrong place wrong time. The 4 million miles of accident-free driving mentioned in the article was attributed to the one of the driver’s who performed the rescue–not the driver who hit the traffic ahead of him.
onboard radar goes off so frequently that you learn to ignore it. Vorad beeps at signs and bridges. Much better to adjust your speed for reduced visibility and turn the C B on to hear if there is trouble ahead.
Having driven for more than 30 years, I believe the driver simply failed to pay attention to what he was doing. I am sure there are underlying factors that may have contributed to his lack of attention, but the responsibility is his. Almost every one of us had had a similar situation happen, and know that you always have to be vigilant. I am very glad nobody was seriously hurt as a result, but the driver is the one with the wheel and the responsibility.
The story is definitely scary, and it sounds a little like a movie scene – with the proper happy ending thankfully!
We don’t know what exactly happened that caused the accident, so we can’t blame the driver. I would probably agree with P.K. that it’s driver’s responsibility to pay attention to the road and properly predict the effects of his actions on the road, but there are so many other factors that could have played a role.
The lesson tho should be that yes, more technology should be implemented to help drivers in that type of situations and that more automobile drivers need to understand the what a big truck can cause on the road if it faces unexpected circumstances and consider this when driving because often the car in front of the truck is responsible for what happens after!